Petra Schmitter

Research Group Leader – Climate Mitigation & Adaptation Pathways (CMAP)

Colombo - Sri Lanka

Expertise

Agricultural water management, catchment hydrology, water productivity, farmer-led and solar-based irrigation, rain-fed and irrigated cropping systems, bio(geo)chemical fluxes and watershed management

Before IWMI

Petra worked at the Singapore-Delft Water Alliance; National University of Singapore; Africa Rice Center, Cotonou, Benin; Institute of Plant Production and Agroecology in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Hohenheim, Germany; and Arcadis, Belgium. She has led several large multidisciplinary projects in Africa and Asia with national and international research institutions, governments, (international) nongovernmental organizations and the private sector. She holds an MSc in Bio-engineering and Environmental Technology from KU Leuven, Belgium; an Msc in Water Resources Engineering jointly organized by KU Leuven and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB); and a PhD in Agricultural Science from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. She has over 35 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals, and chaired international webinars in the field of water for food systems.